Alone or Together?
by RandomTheWriter
Summary: Marinette has been training to be a spy and is going on another mission, but this time, she isn't alone and is assigned a partner. They get paired up, but Marinette is certain she can work better by herself. Will she realize there is power in numbers or will she leave her partner behind?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Marinette are you coming?" Alya yelled from the living room.

"Ya, ya, coming!" she replied from her room. Marinette walked out of the room in her workout clothes ready to go to her agility lesson.

"Remind me to never let you talk me into taking a 7 AM Agility lesson with you, ever" Alya said as she yawned. Marinette giggled, it was her idea to take this lesson, but she always felt like it woke her up a little.

"Don't worry, after this you don't have a class until eleven" Marinette walked out into the hallway of their apartment and locked the door.

"Ya meaning I could have slept until 11, if it weren't for you"

"Well it's the only class we have together before you go off into your specialized classes, excuse me if I thought my best friend would want to spend some time with me" the girls walked out of their apartment and towards the main campus.

"We live together!" Alya exclaimed. They both laughed and made their way into the gym. They got started on their stretches and warm ups as they waited for M. D'Argencourt to begin their lesson. When he arrived, he immediately put the girls to work having them do intense cardio workouts, climbing the nearly impossible obstacle course, and climb the rope to ring the bell on the ceiling, 10 times.

"Well done Marinette, though I expect a better time for the obstacle course, and Alya… You'll get there, keep practicing" and with that he left the gym. Alya collapsed to the floor,

"Why do you always get such good feedback and I'm just told to keep trying" she complained.

"Well I am his best student" she jokingly bragged.

"Ya, ya whatever, I'm gonna go home and shower and take an hour nap to sleep all this pain away. You coming?" Alya asked as she grabbed her bag.

"Nah, I got reflex check with Master Fu today, you go ahead" Marinette said. Alya nodded her head in understanding and left the gym. Marinette cleaned herself up and made her way to Master Fu's classroom. She knocked on the door, but when she heard no one answer, she poked her head in.

"Master Fu are you here?" She called into the room. She opened the door a little wider, and that was when a circular blade came flying at her face. Out of instinct, Marinette ducked down and did a side somersault out of harm's way.

"Come in child, no more blades I promise" Master Fu called out. Marinette cautiously walked into the room to see Master Fu sitting on a floor mat, chuckling softly.

"That was a low blow Master, I was already so tired from Agility training" Marinette complained as she put down her stuff and sat in front of Master Fu.

"I told you the first day and I will tell you again, Never let your guard down"

"Can you believe it's been 6 years already" Marinette said.

"Yes, time has a way of making it seem like moments have passed when in reality, years have" Marinette nodded her head, she thought back to the time when she lived in a small bakery, with her parents and life was good.

Then one day, she and Alya were walking to school when an old man was walking across the street with a red car zooming towards him. Marinette rushed into the street and pulled the man to the sidewalk, who she'd later learn was actually Master Fu. Alya helped give the man some water and ensure he wasn't in shock and pass out. She also gave the driver a piece of her mind about driving fast near schools and residential areas. They continued their day as normal, but Master Fu visited both Marinette and Alya's parents to tell them that they had extraordinarily kind children and would like to train them to be apart of the Miraculous Secret Agency. They were hesitant, but allowed them to go when Master Fu promised to allow the girls to visit home every weekend.

He took both Alya and Marinette to the MSA Headquarters and observed them to see what department would fit well for them. Marinette was a creative little spirit, always thinking of new ways to get out of a situation. She excelled in her agility courses and reflex tests, so Master Fu decided to begin her training to work in the field. Marinette became a highly trusted worker of MSA and became known as her code name: Ladybug, professional spy and fighter. Alya was another spirit, highly persuasive and always having a need to know the truth, so he began her training in the active reporters unit. She went on to become the best reporter in the MSA, and anything that was to be publicly announced, was to go through her first.

Master Fu was immensely proud of the two girls that he had come to love as his own grandchildren. They had made an impact on this campus, bringing the best out of everyone.

"Uh, Master Fu?" Marinette said bringing him out of his reverie.

"Yes sorry, grab that sword over there and we will begin our lesson" he instructed.

After an hour or so, a knock at the door allowed Marinette to breath a little. Even though she loved this lesson, she was too focused on not being killed to really enjoy it. She grabbed her bag and started for the door, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Master Fu pick up the forgotten circular blade. She smiled, he may be old, but he sure knew how to hold his ground. She opened the door and allowed the next student to walk in.

Adrien Agreste finished his fencing lesson and was heading towards Master Fu's classroom. He knocked on the door with his rapier in his hand. When the door opened just enough, Master Fu threw the circular blade and watched his student use his sword to deflect the blade.

"Very good use of resources, Adrien" he complimented.

"Thank you, Master" Adrien replied.

"Take a seat, do a fifteen minute meditation to center yourself, before we start today's lesson" he instructed. Ever the obedient child, Adrien closed his eyes and began drifting into a state of semi consciousness.

Adrien was a difficult case, his father was a very controlling person, who didn't allow the poor boy to breath. It was clear that Gabriel Agreste was a very busy man, so Master Fu offered to raise the young boy. Both Gabriel and Emilie declined the offer, but a few years, his mother had died from illness and Gabriel drove himself deeper into his work, hardly even acknowledging his own son. So, when Master Fu went knocking once more, Gabriel decided it would be best if Adrien went to stay in a home where he'd feel love and wanted. Whatever love he had for his son, he pushed into sending him away, telling him he could always come back, but he'd be happier there. And he was, Adrien flourished under the love and guidance of his teachers and friends. He became the best fencer and spy in the male department, while he was known for having terrible luck, he always found a way to turn his bad luck into something good. Code name being Chat Noir, Adrien held that bad luck and used it to his advantage.

"Master Fu? Shall we begin the lesson?" he asked quietly.

"Yes, yes please hand me the blade and we can begin" Master Fu said standing up to teach a boy he's seen grow into a man.

Back with Marinette, she somehow made it to her espionage and spanish class without any tardiness, a trait that often followed her wherever she went. After it was her lunch break so she went off to go meet Alya in the cafeteria. She walked into the room and began looking for her friend.

"Hey look here comes the spy" Nino called from the table while Alya just elbowed him in the ribs.

"Oh look the Analyst is here" Marinette said in mock sweetness.

"Ya, ya joke all you want, but can you recognise difference in engines of two different cars? Ya didn't think so" Nino proceeded to eat his sandwich to let his insult rub in a little more.

"Whatever" Marinette said.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, Nino is holding a weekend party at his room tonight, you coming?" Alya asked.

"Ya dudette, you should totally come" Nino added.

"I would, but Ms. Mendeleiev gave me extra chemistry homework for being like 30 seconds late to her class" Marinette said.

"Was that a lie?" Nino asked.

"What, what, no! No no no no, of course not" Marinette rushed to explain. Then she placed her head on the table.

"How'd you know?" came her muffled response.

"Your voice dropped like two octaves lower than normal" Nino explained.

"Dude its fine, we get that parties aren't your deal"

"Ya, just have a warm plate of dinner for me when I get home and all will be forgiven" Alya said.

Marinette laughed, "You got it."

She quickly finished her lunch and said goodbye to Alya before going to her next classes. Once those were done, she went home to complete her homework. She then went to the gym to practice her skills. She didn't get the title of Ladybug by doing nothing. After returning home from her evening workout, Marinette made dinner and sat down to relax and eat it. Just as she was getting ready to hop into bed, she got a message from Master Fu, requesting her appearance tomorrow at 9 AM, in his office. After setting her alarm, she climbed into her soft bed and instantly fell into a slumber.

**Hello Again!**

**I'm back with my first multi-chapter story, so buckle up!**

**Please review and tell me how I can improve my writing**

**I'm sort of nervous to write this, but I won't let it go because I really like the idea**

**Anywho, Have a great day and ENJOY yourself!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter . 2**

Across France, in the countryside of Marseille a young couple were driving across the rough terrain to an abandoned warehouse at around 1 AM.

"Jeffory! We can't just leave the boxes here, after you and your stupidity decided to fire everyone, no one will be here to guard the place" the young woman yelled at her husband.

"Relax my peach cake, that's why we are here. We are going to grab all the boxes and keep them at our place, and anyone that wants to sell stocks can just get them from us directly"

"Oh that's a genius idea, let's tell everyone our home address and keep all the stocks in our basement so if anyone comes searching we can just point them to the boxes" she said sarcastically. Jeffory pulled her close,

"Karen, I love it when you act sarcastic, but do it any louder and you can be sarcastic in the local police station!" he spun her away.

"Now hurry up we don't have time, before people come looking to see what's with the noises" Jeffory began shoveling boxes into the back to the minivan, while Karen rolled her eyes and did as she was told.

"Hey! Who's in there!" a voice yelled from outside. Karen froze and looked towards Jeffory for instructions on what to do next. Jeffory moved towards a small window and looked outside, he saw an old man with a flashlight looking into the warehouse. The old man was just at the entrance of the warehouse, when the gunshot was heard. At such close proximity the sound was heard as a loud boom of thunder, but the old man who now lay dead on his chest, proved that it was much more than a sound of thunder. Jeffory put the small handgun back into his coat and motioned for Karen to follow him. Karen was as pale as a ghost, but followed anyway. They quickly pulled the man into a pile of hay in the corner of the warehouse. Then, they packed up the rest of the boxes in silence and drove off into the night.

"Why would you do that, you killed an old man!" Karen yelled once the shock had worn off.

"Sweets, it had to be done, he was too close" Jeffory said calmly.

"Had to be done! He could have had family, grandchildren even" she cried out.

"When I married you, I thought I was marrying a sweet, kind man, not some psycho killer that inherited a million dollar drug company that had been passed down for generations"

"Exactly, its been passed down for so long, it would be disrespectful to toss it aside" He said shaking his head.

"Baby, please don't let me do this alone, you said for better or for worse you would always be by my side" Jeffory said pouting.

"Whatever, let's just get going before I really go mad and take that handgun and ram it right into your face and-" in a seconds time, Jeffory pulled out a small pocket knife and held it to her arm.

"Mind your words missy" he said threateningly. Karen gasped at his reaction.

"I'm sorry Jeffory, I stepped out of line there" she apologised.

"Good now let's go home shall we" he said smiling as though nothing had happened. Karen stayed silent throughout the drive, cursing the Akuma name in her mind. She met Jeffory in high school and they both fell madly in love. Her parents didn't like the boy, so Karen decided to elope. Karen and Jeffory went to his home where they were welcomed. They stopped going to school and once Karen became a big part of his life, Jeffory decided to show her the secrets in his life. He showed her the warehouse and the company his great grandfather had created; Akuma. Karen was hesitant at first, saying all she wanted was a normal life and family, but Jeffory promised that after they made a few million, they'd sell the company and settle down for good, but that never came. Jeffory's greed and ego became to big and their dream of having a family was soon forgotten. They didn't stop at a few million, instead becoming one of the biggest drug lords in France.

A few years ago, Karen decided that enough was enough, she was going to leave because this wasn't the life she had imagined, but that was when the threats started. Jeffory wouldn't let her go and began threatening her to stay. So Karen decided to become the mastermind behind this operation. While Jeffory favored brute and strength, Karen was a more tactical person, finding ways to avoid being found rather than taking the lives of whoever found out.

Jeffory pulled into the driveway of their big home, lots of money also means a ridiculously large house. He put the car in park and walked over to the passenger's side. He knocked on the window, pulling Karen from her train of thought. Jeffory walked up to the front door to unlock it, once he did that, he went to the back of the minivan, where all the boxes were stored.

"Hurry up, we don't want the neighbors to come and find this stuff" He said , handing a box to Karen. Once they unloaded all their stocks, the couple went inside and made sure the boxes were well hidden in the basement. They walked back upstairs and Jeffory was all smiles.

"Only one casualty, I think that deserves a drink" he said waving Karen over to their in house bar.

"Ya, you know I'm pretty tired, I'm just going to go to bed" She said heading up the stairs.

"Suit yourself" Jeffory shrugged, before tearing into a bottle for himself.

Upstairs, Karen went and took a long bath to wash all the guilt and sadness off her body, it didn't help and by the time she got out she was as shriveled as a raisen. She made her way into the bedroom, hearing a football match being played on the television by Jeffory. She climbed into her soft bed and begged her mind to forget about the events of today. After a good while, she was whisked away to the safety of her dreams.

* * *

Back at MSA, Alya woke up in the middle of the night when her phone when her phone went off with an alert. She quickly silenced it, as to not awake Marinette, and checked to see the alert. She jumped out of bed when she saw that a 53 year old man was found near the abandoned warehouse in Marseille. The MSA had looked into the warehouse long ago and had pinpointed that use of the warehouse being linked with the infamous group, The Akuma. Recently a young woman by the name of Lila Rossi called the MSA, saying she had information about the Akuma because she was a former worker. The MSA investigators took her in and she told them all about the leaders of this group, people she was very close with. By the end of the investigation they had the names and addresses of the leaders of The Akuma, but they couldn't put them behind bars without solid evidence. Lila also said that, Jeffory Kline, one of the masterminds, had fired all his workers due to lack of trust, therefore, the Akuma would have a decrease in activity, for several months. Alya grabbed her laptop and sent an email to Master Fu saying that they should put people into action, there had been 3 deaths in the past two months meaning, while The Akuma no longer had members, the leaders were still continuing with the dirty work.

Master Fu responded almost immediately, saying he saw the news and had enlisted two agents to have a briefing in the morning, and start uncovering all the secrets of The Akuma. He told Alya to rest easy for now, and tomorrow she would have a new assignment that would require all her skills and strength. Alya decided to see if she could find anything else about The Akuma so she searched the web for anything she could find. She found out that The Akuma was a very unforgiving, they mainly took women as their workers and were known to cut butterfly shapes into the people who betrayed them. Alya shivered at the thought of having to work for such evil people. She glanced at the clock and was surprised to see that it was 2:30 in the morning. Alya shut down her laptop and placed on her side table. She settled into her soft bed and tried to tell herself that no one would ever work for The Akuma once the MSA captured their leaders and forced them to live behind bars.

* * *

**The last chapter was short and this chapter is short, so why not upload both today.**

**Also I hope I can keep uploading new chapters daily, but school is starting tomorrow so it might end up being once every two days. **

**I hope you liked this chapter and please tell me how I can improve because I am always looking for ways to improve**

**Have a great day and enjoy you life! :) **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The next day Marinette woke up, feeling refreshed after a good night's sleep, she sat up on her bed and stretched herself out. She reached over to the bedside table and grabbed her phone, she checked the time, 9:15 AM. Marinette's eyes blew wide as she remembered Master Fu's message saying to meet up at 9:00. She jumped out of bed and pulled on her leggings and a simple t-shirt. She rushed to the bathroom and began assaulting her teeth with the toothbrush. After that she pulled her hair into twin tails, before running around the small apartment, looking for her keys, wallet, and phone.

"Can you keep it down with all your running around, some of us didn't get such a refreshing good night's sleep" Alya said as she rubbed her eyes from the doorway of her room.

"Sorry, I'm late for the meeting with Master Fu" Marinette explained as she looked under the sofa for her keys.

"Gotcha!" She grabbed them and ran out the door yelling, "Bye Alya, I'll see you later today, shut the door, Thanks!" Alya laughed as she walked towards the door and pulled it shut, that's her Marinette, alright.

Marinette ran down the hall and towards the main building. She glanced at the clock beside Master Fu's room, 9:30.

30 minutes late, she could live with that. She opened the door and walked inside.

"Ah, Marinette, Thank you for joining us" Master Fu said.

"Sorry I'm late, I didn't hear my alarm-" she trailed off as she noticed that they weren't alone. A young man, about 22 years old, was sitting across Master Fu's desk.

"The Black cat?" she asked.

"Ladybug, pleasure to meet the strongest member of the women's department" he said standing up to shake her hand.

"You as well, Chat Noir" she said, returning the favor.

"Take a seat children, we need to discuss your new mission" Master Fu said.

"Master Fu, you know I like to work alone on my missions" Marinette interjected.

"This mission is much too dangerous to do alone" Master Fu said.

"Now, consider this your briefing. MSA had been closely monitoring The Akuma and recently a previous worker reached out to us and gave valuable information about the leaders of this Drug selling company" Master Fu placed two pictures on the table,

"Jeffory and Karen Kline, immigrants from the United States, have been disclosed as the leaders of the Akuma, and while we have reason to believe it, we cannot put them behind bars due to the lack of evidence, everytime we come close to the hub of the drugs, they pack up,fire everyone, and move."

"Do you have a location on the personal home?" Marinette asked.

"The worker that reached out to us gave the names, home address, and up to date information about these two, so yes we do"

"That means we could investigate the home" Adrien claimed.

"Yes, we could, but we need much more than that. That is where you two come in" Marinette and Adrien straightened up at the mention of their roles.

"You two will be playing the role of a newlywed couple, your home will be located just next to theirs and your job is to get them to trust you. Get close to them and once you feel comfortable, start investigating" Master Fu finished. Marinette and Adrien glanced at each other, while their cheeks heated up. Master Fu saw this and smiled,

"If you are not comfortable playing this role, I can get someone else to play the part" he simply said.

"No!" they both exclaimed. Adrien cleared his throat, "We will do it for the greater good".

"Good! You both will be Marinette and Adrien Agreste, we tried to keep your background as close to your real ones. So, Marinette you own a small fashion designing business and Adrien you are a chemistry teacher. Adrien, your father was quite wealthy, therefore you could afford a big home as your first home. This mission will most likely continue for the next few months so stick to your story. How you want to tackle your relationship is up to you two, just stick to the outline and keep it believable" Master Fu stood up indicating that the meeting was done. He walked to the door and showed the two out, "Oh and we have an appointment at 2 o'clock so come back to this address" he handed them the paper before closing the door.

Marinette grabbed the paper and looked towards the man that was to be her "husband" for the next few months.

"Want to go get something to eat while we figure out how to deal with this" Adrien offered.

"Hang on" Marinette said as she pulled out her phone and texted Alya, asking if she was home. When Alya answered, saying she wasn't, Marinette looked to Adrien and said, "I have food at home, want to come to my room?"

"Sure, but should I trust my new fiance, alone in her room?" Adrien asked, cheekly. Marinette let out a squeal and punched him on the shoulder.

"OW, relax I was just kidding, jeez you have a strong left" He said rubbing his shoulder. Marinette rolled her eyes and walked towards her apartment with Adrien following close behind. They entered the room in silence and Adrien sat down, while Marinette grabbed two bowls of spaghetti and meatballs. She handed the bowl to Adrien while sitting down to dig in herself.

"Mmmm, if being fake married to you for a month means I get to eat good food everyday, count me in!" he exclaimed.

"Are you really willing to go through this?" Marinette asked truthfully. Adrien finished eating his forkful of spaghetti before answering, "I mean ya why not? It's not like we are really going to get together"

"Okay then, if you're okay with it then I am too" Marinette said nodding.

"Ya cool, now we need a cover story" Adrien said putting down his bowl on the coffee table.

"Ooo can we be like, high school sweethearts?!"

"Um, sure" Adrien drew out.

"That came out way too excited for my liking" Marinette thought.

"Mine too" Marinette froze.

"I said that out loud, didn't I?" Marinette said mentally face palming. Adrien laughed before nodding his head.

"It's okay, I suppose you wanted your high school sweetheart to whisk you off your feet?" Adrien asked.

"Well I got here when I was 13 so I suppose this is just one long high school experience"

"True, means you've still got a chance, so, highschool sweethearts?" Adrien asked. Marinette nodded bashfully.

"Okay, so we got together in highschool and fell in love at first sight?"

"How about we make our love bloom through friendship, it'll make it seem like we are serious about each other and why we got married at such a young age" Marinette decided.

"Okay, so we were friends and slowly fell for each other and by the time college began, we couldn't stay away from each other" Adrien continued.

"So you decided to pop the question and we stayed engaged for a long time"

"All through college?" Adrien asked.

"We can have the date be a few years ago, because staying engaged for 4 years is a little hard to believe"

"Okay so we got married when we were 20?" Adrien asked.

"Well I'm 22 and you're 23, so that makes sense" Marinette said.

"Is that all we need to go over?" Adrien asked.

"Why is there somewhere you need to be?" Marinette asked

"No, I've just been eyeing your video game collection since I walked in" Adrien said truthfully.

"Oh okay, we can play, but just know that I am the Ultimate Mecha Strike 3 Queen" Marinette boasted.

"Well it's a good thing I came because I am the ultimate Mecha Strike 3 King" Adrien said, walking over to pull the game from the shelf.

"Well, this Queen has remained undefeated for 2 years"

"Well say hello to defeat, cause it's coming" Adrien said, pulling the consoles and handing it over to Marinette.

They played more than 10 games, and after Marinette kept beating him, Adrien suggested they play as a team. In the end, the Queen and King were named the Royals of Ultimate Mecha Strike by their opponents. Adrien took a glance at the clock, after their 11th game, 2:00. He scrambled out of his bean bag chair.

"Marinette, we gotta be somewhere by 2, right?" he asked.

"Ya why?" She said from the kitchen.

"It's already 2 o'clock!" Adrien exclaimed.

"Oh shoot!" Marinette raced around to the living room and pulled on her shoes. She grabbed the little paper given by Master Fu and put in the address into her GPS.

"If we leave now, we can make it in 15 minutes" She said, while opening the door. Adrien pulled on his shoes and pulled Marinette to the parking lot of the apartment. He lead her to a black mustang, he went to the passenger's seat, while tossing the keys to Marinette.

"Why aren't you driving?!" she exclaimed.

"I heard you are one of the craziest drives on campus, so go on" Adrien said hopping into the car.

"I'm only crazy in my car because I know it's not worth $100,000!" she said getting into the driver's seat.

"It's fine, if something happens, then my dad can replace it" Adrien said nonchalantly. Marinette rolled her eyes and muttered something about rich people, before turning the engine on and getting out on the road.

Adrien had to say that crazy was her thing, she would randomly change lanes and swerve around a lot, but somehow managed to stay mostly within the speed limit and stay safe. She also had very bad road rage, not that anyone knew of course. He learned that she had a very colorful vocabulary, only to the people that deserved it of course. They got to the address at around 2:20 and quickly ran to find Master Fu.

"Ah there you two are, Marinette, I see that your tardiness is rubbing off on Adrien" Master Fu chastised.

"It was his idea to play UMS 3 and we lost track of time" Marinette defended. Adrien mocked a look of surprise, acting as though this was news to him. Master Fu looked between the two and shook his head.

"Anyway, come along now, Adrien you are to go to the tent on the right and Marinette you take the left" Master Fu instructed. The two exchanged questioning looks, but ultimately did as they were told.

A few minutes later Adrien walked out in a tuxedo, tailored personally by his own father. He walked up to Master Fu, who was talking with someone that was holding a camera.

"Uh, Master Fu why are we doing this" He asked

"You will see child, be patient".

A few minutes later, Marinette walked out in a wedding dress. It was a traditional white color, but had soft pink streaks running down with the fabric. Her hair was let loose and lightly curled, and she had a veil pinned with a beautiful diamond hair clip. Adrien turned to see what everyone was staring at and his mouth dropped. He'd only ever seen Marinette in either work out clothes or jeans, but she looked ravishing in the dress. He felt his heart skip a few beats as she walked over with a slight blush on her cheeks.

"Master Fu, why am I dressed like this?" Marinette asked sounding somewhat angry.

"I'm not complaining" Adrien thought. Everyone turned to face him, Master Fu chuckling softly and Marinette's eyes went wide, her beautiful bright big bluebell eyes. Adrien shook his head, and realised that he said everything out loud. Marinette turned to look at Master Fu with scarlet cheeks. Master Fu answered the question Marinette asked before,

"Well you two are going to move in together and it would be highly unlikely that a young couple with no kids would have no pictures of them together and their wedding photos" Suddenly everything was making a lot more sense now. The photographer lead the "Couple" to a beautiful garden filled with lilies and roses to begin taking pictures with them both. While the close proximity had the two blushing like mad, it was still fun when Master Fu and the photographer would joke around. Then the "Ceremony" part, they were put on a small stage with a priest that stood between them, as though performing a real marriage ceremony. Master Fu handed them two rings and the photographer instructed them on how they should look to make it seem as though it were taken in the moment. Then it came time for the kiss. Marinette and Adrien both questioned whether it was truly needed or it was just for a laugh, but Master Fu insisted they have a few pictures like that for an album. Seeing as they had no way out of it, Marinette and Adrien moved towards one another.

"Alright, you both will stand close to each other, Adrien, you will place your hands on her waist and dip her low, then press your lips soundly. Don't pretend because it will be very visible in the close ups, and I will tell you when you can break, okay?" the photographer instructed. Adrien shrugged his shoulders and looked to Marinette.

"Are you okay with all this?" he asked.

"For the greater good" she said. With that, Adrien placed his hands on her hips and slowly leaned her back, ensuring that she wouldn't fall, but frankly that girl was as light as a feather. He leaned in close and pressed his lips to hers. He felt Marinette jump under him and winced, had he been too forward? Marinette hadn't been expecting it nor had she been expecting the way her body melted into the kiss. They stayed there for what seemed like an eternity, but was really only a few seconds. They quickly separated when the photographer said to, both out of breath and slightly dizzy. Marinette had crimson cheeks when she glanced at adrien and he looked back. She cleared her throat,

"Ahm, are we done Master Fu?" She asked.

"Yes, that should be more than enough" he replied. With that Marinette ran into the dressing room and changed back into her normal clothes and practically bolted out of the venue out of sheer embarrassment. Then she realized she had driven over with Adrien, mentally face palming, she waited for Adrien to return. When he finally showed up, no words were exchanged, she handed him the keys and sat in the passenger's seat. The drive was fairly silent, both Marinette and Adrien were too caught up in the embarrassment of enjoying the kiss. Once they reached the MSA apartments, Marinette got out of the car and said a quiet "See you tomorrow" before going off to the gym. Adrien walked slowly towards his room, wondering if he could do anything to make Marinette less awkward around him. He walked to his room and opened the door, only to see Nino "sucking faces" with Alya. The couple heard the door open and quickly pulled apart.

"Adrien! Didn't think you'd be back so soon" Nino laughed nervously.

"Uh ya, I'm not going to stick around so go back to what you were doing, let me just grab something and I'll leave" Adrien said before going into the kitchen to grab something.

"Could you tell Marinette that I won't be home until later tonight, please" Alya asked.

"Sure I can do that, you guys enjoy your time" Adrien said, smiling as their cheeks darkened in color. With that he went to the campus library and finished off some of his homework from his language classes.

Back with Marinette, she decided to go to the gym straight away to burn off some steam. She did so much that she felt like she was going to pass out after. She took a look at her watch and saw that it was 8:30 P.M. Deciding that it was enough for tonight, she packed up her bag and went to her room. Once she got to her room, she took a long hot shower to soothe the aches of the workout. After she decided that she should stop draining the water from the ocean, she towelled off and dressed in her comfy pajamas. Marinette went to kitchen and heated up some garlic bread and tomato soup, she was about to sit on the couch and turn on the T.V when someone knocked on the door. Suspecting it was Alya she got up and opened the door, only to be faced by a familiar blond.

"Hey" he said.

"What are you doing here?" Marinette asked with an unamused look on her face. Adrien leaned on the door frame and did his best smoulder, "It is the wedding night, isn't it" he said in a low husky voice.

"W-what" Marinette stuttered with her eyes wide. Adrien threw his head back and began laughing.

"Oh you should see your face, you looked so scared, relax, I'm only teasing" Adrien made a show of wiping a tear from his eye from all that laughter.

"Ya well I didn't know if you were joking or not, I mean, rumor says that Adrien Agreste is the biggest playboy this campus has ever seen, one rumor even says that he's slept with every girl on campus" Marinette said smirking. Adrien leaned close and flashed her a predatory grin,

"Well you of all people should know that those rumors are false"

"Why me?"

"Because 1. I only met you today, meaning there is one girl I haven't slept with and two, being Alya took a report on me were I specifically said that I have not dated anyone nor slept with anyone on campus, which she published in the school newspaper, as an inside scoop to the famous Agreste, and you being her friend, I expected you to know that." he pointed out.

"So anywho, for our wedding night I propose a night of video games, movies, and drum roll please, Ice cream!" He said pulling out a bag of freshly bought ice cream.

"Please come in, now!" Marinette said, super excitedly. She pulled out a bunch of video games and movies and grabbed a blanket from the closet. They huddled up together in front of the T.V.

"Another reason for coming here was to make sure what happened today won't affect how we work on the mission" Adrien confessed after taking a bowl of tomato soup.

"Don't worry, I just needed time to wallow in my embarrassment, but ya we are good" she said punching him on the shoulder.

"Alright, but we may not be so good once I beat you in this game" Adrien boasted.

"Bring it on kitty cat" Marinette replied, just as cockily.

Alya walked back into her own room at around 2 AM after hanging out at Nino's place. She was expecting to come home, with Marinette snoring in her bedroom. What she wasn't expecting to see was Adrien hugging Marinette on the sofa with The Little Mermaid playing on the television. Marinette's head rested on Adrien's shoulder while his cheek pressed against the top of her head. They had their arms tangled around each other, sleeping peacefully. Alya smirked at the sight before her, she took a few pictures with her phone, before walking to the sleeping pair and lightly pushing Marinette and in turn, Adrien. This made him fall against the armrest of the sofa with Marinette against his chest. Adrien shifted on his back slightly and pulled his legs on to the sofa. Alya held her breath, thinking he might awaken, but let a sigh of relief when he cuddled closer to Marinette, eliminating any space between them. She smiled at the two and pulled out her phone to capture the picture. Alya covered them with the blanket before going into her own room to get some rest.

**Hello!**

**I apologize for going MIA for a few days, but my school started and I'm pretty busy, so updates will be random. **

**I really want to get this done so I am probably going to write everything and just update stuff regularly. **

**Anywho, I hope you all have a great day and enjoyed this chapter.**

**BYE!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Adrien tilted his head away from the sunlight shining through his window. He intended to move his whole body, but realised he couldn't move anything more than his neck. He slowly opened his eyes, squinting at the bright light. Once everything came into focus, he looked at his chest to find a small Marinette cuddled up to him. Adrien flushed bright crimson when he felt her arms around him. He tapped her shoulder, in hopes of waking her up.

"Uh, Marinette?" he said quietly. She scowled in her sleep, but ultimately did nothing and simply continued to sleep.

"Marinette! Get off Adrien" another voice said. Adrien turned his neck awkwardly to see Alya sipping tea, she saw that he saw her and winked at Adrien.

"Mmno, he's comfy" Marinette cuddled further into his chest and Adrien's cheeks darkened even further.

"Ya well his cheeks look like they are about to explode so come on and get up" Alya said walking towards the couch. She pulled the blanket off Marinette and began pulling on her legs. Marinette, on the other hand, had a vice grip on Adrien's torso and would not let go.

"Stop it!" Marinette yelled.

"Not unless you say you're awake" Alya said, continuing to pull.

"Okay! Okay! I'm up" Marinette said slowly releasing her hold when she felt Alya let go of her legs.

"Thank Goodness, I thought you were going to squeeze me to death" Adrien said, also standing up on his feet. Marinette blushed as she realised what she did, " I'm sorry" She squeaked.

"Ah it's okay" Adrien dismissed.

"I am super hungry after that whole exchange" Alya said.

"Well I was planning on going home today, want to head out now and get breakfast at the bakery?" Marinette asked.

"Sure" Alya replied.

"Do you want to come Adrien?" Marinette turned to Adrien and asked.

"Sure it will be fun-" he said just as his phone chimed.

"It's Master Fu, he said he wants to see us after we get ready"

"Oh okay, tell him we will be there soon, you should go get ready and I will meet you there, and after that, we can go to the bakery" Marinette said heading into her bedroom.

"Alright, see ya" Adrien said grabbing his stuff and leaving the room.

Marinette walked out 10 minutes later in jeans and a t-shirt, with neatly done pigtails.

"Soooo, Adrien huh?" Alya said while Marinette was in the kitchen grabbing a breakfast bar.

"What? No way, we are just partners for this mission" Marinette explained.

"I thought you always work alone"

"I do, but try explaining that to Master Fu" Marinette said pulling on her shoes.

"Anyway, I will be back soon and then we can go to the bakery" She waved goodbye and shut the door. Once she reached Master Fu's office, Adrien had already been sitting down and waiting.

"Adrien told me you all were going to the bakery for breakfast so I will try and make this quick" He said, once Marinette sat down.

"The reason I brought you here today is that I fear you will not be able to act as though you would give the moon and the stars for each other" Marinette and Adrien looked questioningly to one another.

"So consider this your training, today when in the public eye you must act as a young married couple because when you go to Marseille and accidentally drop your cover, someone could be watching, then the Akuma will know and our chances of finally putting them behind bars will slip from our hands. Not to mention, what they would do if they found out who you really are, you could be captured and tortured for information. I don't want to scare you, but the threats are there, and this is no easy mission" Master Fu explained to them. He stood up and handed them two rings,

"Wear these and play the part, understood?" Master Fu asked. Marinette and Adrien took the rings and nodded their heads.

"Good, now consider today a practice day and have fun on your little outing" He said opening the door for the two. Both of them waved goodbye and walked down the hallway. Marinette looked at her ring, it was a silver band with diamonds and a small sapphire in the middle. Adrien's was a similar silver with just a few diamonds scattered across the band. They looked at each other and shrugged.

"Let's hope this day isn't a total _cat_astrophe" Adrien said to ease the awkwardness.

"Let's just leave it to holding hands and nothing too much okay?"

"Whatever the Lady wishes" Marinette shook her head and pulled out her phone to text Alya to meet her in the car park.

"Okay, Alya says she will meet us in the car park so let's go" They went out to the car park and waited a good 10 minutes before Alya showed up with Nino alongside her.

"Hey spy" Nino said

"'Sup DJ" Marinette replied.

"I plan on joining my friends on a little adventure"

"Alright, well let's get going" Marinette said going into the car. She sat in the driver's seat and made Alya sit in the front. Nino and Adrien sat in the back. When she put the car into drive Alya noticed the bling on her finger.

"Marinette! Did you get married and never tell me!" She screeched, nearly giving everyone in the car a heart attack.

"_Fromage et vermicelles! _Alya don't do that" Marinette said holding a hand to her chest.

"I feel like my ears just bursted" Adrien muttered from the back.

"Oh hush, you drama king, my best friend has a suspicious ring on her finger and I wanna know who put it there and give them a piece of my mind for not getting approval from me."

"Well, the person who gave me the ring is actually in the car with us right now" Marinette smirked as she saw Adrien's eyes go wide in the rear-view mirror.

"What!, it can't be Nino so it must be… Adrien!" Alya screeched. She turned around and looked at his hand and saw a similar ring.

"Holy sweet cheese, it's true" Alya said looking as though she were about to pass out.

"Well I guess we should say congrats guys" Nino said shaking Adrien's hand.

"Relax guys, I trust you enough to tell you that it's for a mission" Marinette said.

"Oh Thank goodness, I was about to strangle Adrien for proposing before talking to me" Alya said releasing a sigh of relief.

"What now?" Adrien said from the back.

"If you ever want her hand in marriage Adrien, there are somethings you need to do first, come talk to me whenever the time comes and I'll walk you through the steps alright" Alya said reassuringly, Adrien looked out the window to avoid eye contact with anyone. He looked out at the streets of Paris, 10 years and not a thing had changed. He felt a bit nostalgic looking the area, then he realised how close this was to his home and old fencing gym. He used to drive these streets everyday with his bodyguard and now most people forgot that he even existed. Just as he was thinking of going to visit his father, the car came to a halt. Alya got out and stood near Adrien's door. When she realised he had no idea what was happening, she sighed and opened the door for him and motioned for him to come outside. Once he stepped out of the car she got into his seat. He gave her a questioning look,

"Just go sit and I will explain" was her reply. He did what was asked and went to sit in the front seat.

"Wanna tell me why I had to switch seats?" he asked.

"Well if you were listening you would know, but I had the best idea to get you two to act lovey dovey and practice… Try to fool Marinette's parents" Alya said adding jazz hands.

"What?"

"If you can fool them then you guys are great actors, if not then I will still get a good laugh seeing their reactions" Alya explained.

"Are you okay with that?" Adrien said to Marinette.

"Um I don't know, they might be angry that I kept such a thing from them" Marinette said keeping her eyes pointed to the road.

"Puhlease, your parents never get mad, you could tell them that you killed someone and they'd still love you" Alya said rolling her eyes.

"And besides if that bothers you, then you can tell them the truth at the end of the day, then you can ask them if they thought your acting was believable of not" Alya added.

"I guess it would be good practice" Marinette said hesitating slightly.

"Great, now when are we going to reach!?" Nino said exasperatedly. Just as he said that, Marinette turned the corner to the street on which the bakery stood, proud and tall. It stood like that for almost 30 years, ever since her father decided to move out and build his own business. Her grandfather wasn't too pleased at his modern methods, but her Nona was very supportive.

Marinette parked the car on the street, away from the traffic. Everyone got out and stretched themselves out, while Marinette stayed to grab her stuff. She was about to open the door and step out, when the door suddenly opened and Adrien stood as tall as ever, waiting for her to step out. He held out his hand and she hesitantly took it, once she was out of the car, he shut the door and put an arm around her shoulders. She looked up at him and saw him wink. Shaking her head, she walked toward the front door. They all walked in and Marinette smiled when she heard the familiar ring of the bell above the door, home sweet home, she thought.

"Welcome to Tom and Sabine's patisserie, what can I get for you-" Sabine saw her daughter standing in the doorway and almost dropped the tray of macaroons.

"How about a table for your only daughter and her friends?" Marinette giggled. Sabine's smiled so wide, it looked as though her face was split in two.

"Oh, sweetheart!" She said out loud and went running over to her daughter. Sabine pulled Marinette in for a hug and smothered her in love and kisses. Tom came out of the kitchen to see what all the commotion was about, once he saw Marinette, he too went running to pick up his little girl into a giant bear hug. The trio did a big family group hug and Marinette relished the feeling of being held by her parents again. Usually she went over almost every weekend, but this year had been tough, with new classes to take and tests to pass, and not to mention small missions that Marinette treated with the same importance as she would a big one. Tom set his two girls down and went over to say hello to Alya and Nino, who both got their own bear hugs too. Adrien felt somewhat awkward in all this, he didn't know the Dupain-Chengs on a personal level, so he felt like he was intruding on a family moment.

"And who are you young man?" Sabine said walking up to Adrien.

"I'm Adrien" he replied, putting on his model smile.

"A friend of Marinette's, I suppose?" She asked and Adrien froze. He looked to Marinette who had been eavesdropping on the conversation, she also seemed to freeze. She looked towards Alya who was wearing a smirk the whole time, seeing this, Marinette sighed and spoke up.

"Maman, Papa, may we please speak in the other room, alone?" She asked with a serious tone. Her parents looked at each other and looked worried.

" Alright sweetheart, Alya, you know how to run the store, could you and Nino watch the store while we go up?" Sabine asked. Once Alya said she would, they went upstairs with Marinette motioning to Adrien to follow. While behind her parents on the stairs, she whispered to Adrien, telling him to stick to her new story, because her parents already knew about the spy thing. They followed Tom and Sabine up to the apartment, where they both sat on the sofa. Sabine had a questioning look on her face, at why Adrien was also here.

"I'm not even going to try to beat around the bush on this one" Marinette started, as soon as they sat down.

"AdrienandIgotmarriedpleasedon'tbemad" She said in one breath. Tom smiled,

"Sweetheart, slow down, whatever it is, you can tell us" he said holding Sabine's hand. Marinette took a deep breath.

"Adrien and I are married" She said slowly. Marinette looked up at her parents and watched their expressions morph from understanding to shock.

"Really?" Tom asked.

"Yes Sir" Adrien decided to pitch in.

"And this wasn't some sort of forced relationship? Marinette?" Sabine asked.

"No, no I willingly agreed to it, we knew each other for a few years and we didn't tell anyone because you know how fast gossip travels on campus" Marinette said.

"Why didn't you tell us anything Marinette?" Tom asked.

"It was my fault sir" Adrien cut in. Everyone in the room turned to look at Adrien.

"My father and I don't speak that often, but you might know him as Gabriel Agreste?"

"The Fashion Designer!?" Marinette screeched. Adrien tried his best not to laugh.

"And I did many modelling gigs for his company, but he always had many rules for me to follow, and one being to not date anyone until I reached a certain age. He also told me that I wasn't allowed to make rash decisions, apparently marriage is one of them" He said.

"Once I saw Marinette, I couldn't take my eyes off her, I begged her to let me take her out on a date and she agreed, but I...loved her more than that, so I asked her to marry me with it just being between us" Adrien gulped, thinking he took it too far and would get a beating from Marinette and her father.

"Oh sweet child" He felt Sabine hold his head in a hug like position, he looked up to meet her eyes.

"We aren't mad, we've been dreaming of the day Marinette settles down and lives her happily ever after"

"We just expected to know about it" Tom cut in.

"But we know that Marinette is not a child anymore and can make her own decisions" Sabine finished.

"So your not mad?" Marinette asked

"Seeing that the man you picked up seems like a sweetheart, no" Sabine smiled.

"But, please let us know about things moving forward, if you need help or are expecting, then, tell us or I will never forgive you" Tom said, earning him an elbow to the stomach from his wife. Tom smiled and pulled everyone in for a hug.

"Welcome to the family son" He said ruffling Adrien's hair. Adrien felt warm in his heart, but quickly brought himself down to earth, this was all for a mission, he'd never truly be part of this warm loving family. Marinette looked to Adrien with a happy smile for getting through all this with a straight face, but when she looked at him, she saw a humorless smile and sadness in his bright green eyes. She was wondering why he seemed sad, but when he noticed her staring, he quickly wiped the emotion of his face and replaced it with his model smile.

"Shall we go down stairs, I don't know if Alya and Nino can hold themselves back anymore" Sabine asked.

"Sure mom, we'll be down in a minute" Marinette responded, holding on to Adrien's elbow to stop him. Sabine smiled and nodded, before pulling her husband and herself down the stairs.

"YAY! We did it!" Marinette did a little happy dance. Adrien laughed at her antics.

"Well I feel like we could have done it either way because your parents are literally the nicest people on earth, but ya we did it" He laughed.

"Is your father really Gabriel Agreste?" Marinette asked suddenly.

"Um, ya he is, don't tell anyone though, Master Fu told me not to let the news get into campus, so people wouldn't treat me differently and I'd have some form of security and privacy, especially on missions" Adrien explained to her.

"Oh okay, but can I tell you a secret?" Adrien nodded his head and Marinette made a motion, telling him to come closer.

"I've been idolizing Gabriel Agreste and his son for the past 20 years of my life" she said. Adrien didn't know how to react to that.

"How come you never knew it was me?" He asked.

"You look a lot different now than you did when you were 13 let me tell you, anyway we should go back downstairs before my parents start wondering why we are taking so long and start making jokes about it" she said moving towards the door of the room. Adrien followed behind her, silently wondering how different he looked when he was young. They went back downstairs, where Alya, Nino, and Marinette's parents were waiting.

"So will you guys be staying long?" Tom asked.

"No, Adrien and I have a mission to go on, which was part of the reason why I wanted to come visit today" Marinette told her dad. Her mother had just returned from the kitchen with spinach pies and tarts for brunch. They all sat down at the table and began to eat. Adrien inhaled three pies, because they were the best thing he'd ever eaten.

"So you have a mission today?" Sabine asked.

"Ya it will more than likely go on for a few months" Marinette explained.

"Well surely you won't be going on missions for much longer, right?"

"Why wouldn't we"

"Don't you think it would be better to have more stable and less life threatening jobs? For whenever you two decide to start a family, you wouldn't have to worry about each other's safety and leaving one another for months on end. That wouldn't be good for the children, spending time with only one parent at a time" Sabine said honestly. Alya started bursting into laughter, while Nino snickered along, Adrien full on choked on his pie, and Marinette turned scalet.

"We haven't talked about that" she answered, then stuffed her face to avoid answering any more questions.

"Oh come now, it shouldn't be embarrassing, it is something you should start thinking about"

"We were planning on waiting until we could find other jobs and such before starting a family, it wouldn't be fair to leave for months on end and miss the childhood of our child" Adrien pitched in.

"Mmm, see that is smart" Sabine said.

"So Alya any plans for you?" Tom asked. While they were discussing about Alya, Marinette looked towards Adrien and gave him a small thumbs up, he smiled and continued eating his food. In all honesty, the response wasn't as on the spot as Marinette thought. Adrien always wanted to settle down one day and have a family, and be a better dad than his father had been.

"Do you want anymore Adrien?" Marinette asked picking up his plate.

"No thank you, I can take it if you want" He said noticing her trying to handle both their plates and glasses.

"Oh thank you" She said before going to the kitchen, with Adrien following in tow.

"So wanna tell me why you seemed so out of it during the meal" she asked.

"And here I thought I was just going to help you put away the dishes like a good husband"

"Nope, learn this about your wife, I've always got a reason"

"Duly noted"

"So, speak up"

"Um it's nothing really" Adrien denied.

"Ya, Like I believe that…. But if you really don't want to tell me, then I won't push you to"

"Thanks"

"We're a team Adrien and while I usually work alone, I really want this to work, so if you need to talk, I'll be here to listen, Okay?" She said, placing a hand over his. He looked at their hands and smiled, this was going to be a great friendship, he just knew it.

"Thanks Marinette, I really appreciate it"

"Anytime partner, anytime" with that she walked out of the kitchen.

They walked out of the kitchen and saw Alya and Nino had also finished their food.

"Your parents thought it would be a great idea to go look for Andre's Ice Cream" Alya said.

"Oh ya that would be great, let me go get my purse and I will be back" Marinette said.

"Can I come?" Adrien asked.

"Um, sure?" she said hesitantly.

"Well hurry back you two" Sabine said. They quickly headed up stairs and into Marinette's room. She hadn't been up there in a long time so she forgot how pink it was and how many pictures of Adrien she had up there. As soon as she walked up there, she immediately knew why he wanted to come.

"Wow, I feel like idolize isn't the right word for this, and how odd, I see no photos of my father, just all of me?" Adrien mused.

"Oh be quiet, your father wouldn't go out in public and I had no magazines with his photo, and it's important to respect the model as well" Marinette said with her cheeks going red. She started looking all over for her purse. Adrien decided to help and looked under her chaise lounge. He found the purse but also found various other model photos from old photoshoots that he did.

Marinette saw that he had found it and more so she quickly grabbed the photos and purse from his hand.

"Oh gee thanks you found it, okay come on let's go" she then proceeded to push him out the door and far away from her room. He smiled and walked to the living room.

"So we ready to walk to the Trocadero?" Alya asked. When everyone answered in the affirmative, they all set out to get some of Andre's Sweetheart Ice Cream.

"Oh Tom, remember when we met at Andre's ice cream?" Sabine beamed.

"How could I forget, it was the day I met my soulmate" He smiled in return.

"How could I have been your soulmate, I fell over you and I remember you were so angry that I made you drop your ice cream"

"And then you bought me another one, and I fell for your beautiful and kind heart"

"Remember you asked me to take a walk with you near the Seine and you kept coming back"

"Well I was serious about you" Sabine smiled at her husband, then looked back to see her daughter behind her. What an odd thought, her little Marinette, all grown up and married? It seemed like just yesterday she was getting ready for her first day of grade 1, where had the time gone. She noticed that Marinette and Adrien weren't all that close, unlike usual newlyweds. Which was odd considering that they had been together for so long before the marriage. Alya began to notice Sabine's staring and was worried that her friends had just outed themselves as not being truly together. So when Tom caught Sabine's attention for half a second, Alya leaned forward and grabbed both Adrien and Marinette's hand and made them hold each other. When they looked questioningly at her, she just winked and pushed them closer together. Thankfully, they didn't separate and when Sabine turned back around, she smiled at the love sick grins, that Marinette and Adrien put on, once they realised Alya's intention. They all continued to talk as they made their way to Andre's ice cream cart.

"Hello everybody! You are all here to taste Andre's sweetheart ice cream, yes?" He said in his jolly old voice.

"Yes Andre we are" Sabine replieed.

"Ah Sabine and Tom, still to this day one of my most successful love predictions"

"You did predict we'd stay together for a very long time"

"And how right it was, just the regular ice cream today?" He asked.

"Yes thank you" They grabbed their chocolate and vanilla swirl and moved out of the line.

"Hello Andre" Alya said.

"Alya sweetheart, it's been so long" Andre said before going to prepare his "Matchmaker's Secret"

"Indeed it has"

"Well, here you go and I suppose I should wish you a happy engagement when the time comes" Alya and Nino both blushed as Andre stifled a chuckle. Next were Marinette and Adrien,

"OH Marinette! I dreamed of the day you found your lover! Remember you hated coming here because you had no one to come with, but I told you, the time would come" Marinette chuckled.

"Yes well, Andre, this is my... husband Adrien" she hesitantly said.

"Oh my you move fast, and you've got taste" he served them an ice cream to share. Adrien took the ice cream and began eating it before he was slapped on his hand by Marinette.

"Excuse me, but I want some too" she said putting her hands on her hips.

"There's only one spoon" Adrien said with a mouth full of ice cream.

"Well it hot and I particularly don't care, give it here" she lunged for the ice cream. Adrien was quick to dodge the grab and ran down the bridge.

"Adrien! Come back here with my ice cream" she yelled after him. He made a shortcut into the grass and tried to shake her off his tail. Marinette was quick to follow and was quickly catching up. She reached her hand out, trying to grab a hold of his collar, when suddenly she tripped and fell face first into Adrien's back. They both ended up falling down with the ice cream nicely squashed under Adrien. Marinette got off Adrien's back and looked to him sprawled out on the grass.

"You squished the ice cream!" Marinette yelled.

"What me? You decided to body slam me and make me fall!"

"I tripped!"

"On what? Air!"

"It's a talent of mine, but if you had just given me the ice cream in the first place it would have been fine" Marinette exclaimed. Everyone who had been watching from afar were looking incredulously at the two.

"Should we tell them that we can just get another one?" Alya asked.

"Nah they'll figure it out soon enough" Nino said,Smirking at the two. The two came back, pouting like little children over a dropped ice cream cone. Sabine shook her head and handed Andre some money for another ice cream. When they were handed the ice cream, Marinette made the first grab.

"No way, it's my turn now" she said before taking two spoonfuls of ice cream before handing it to Adrien.

"See that is how you share"she said smugly. Adrien just scoffed and ate some of the ice cream.

"So where to now?" Sabine asked.

"Oh the library is giving a few tickets to museums, wanna go check it out?" Alya asked checking her phone for things to do in the area.

Once they all agreed to go, they walked to the Grevin Wax Museum, where they saw sculptures of many famous people, including a very young Adrien Agreste. They sure had a fun time laughing at that. Alya and Nino made sure that Marinette's parents didn't suspect a thing. After a while, Marinette and Adrien fell into a steady rhythm of friendly banter and holding hands. They stayed until the museum closed and headed home as it became dark.

"Will you stay for dinner or do you have to get going?" Sabine asked as she unlocked the front door.

"We should probably go, it's already 8 o'clock and Adrien and I need to pack and everything" Marinette explained.

"Alright, come inside and I will give you a little care package" They all went inside and Sabine grabbed a bag and began tossing all sorts of treats into it. Marinette looked to Alya and shrugged, Alya thought a little and nodded her head. Getting confirmation, Marinette spoke up.

"Hey maman, I wanted to tell you something" Sabine hummed, indicating that Marinette continue.

"I wanted to tell you that Adrien and I aren't really together"

"What?" She looked to them.

"I- I um, we aren't really married" She stuttered.

"Why not, you guys were so cute together" Tom said coming through the door from the kitchen.

"Well you see, we have an important mission and for some reason we got partnered up together" Marinette continued, ignoring her father's comment.

"And to keep our cover, we are playing the role of a newlywed couple" Adrien said.

"On the way here, Alya suggested that we put ourselves to the test in keeping character, so we tried to convince someone super close to us, that we were truly together." Marinette finished.

"So you both are going on a mission, where you pretend to be together, and to make it realistic you decided to practice on us?" Sabine clarified. They all nodded their heads. Sabine and Tom looked to one another and began shaking their heads.

"You children have too much time on your hands these days" With that she got back to putting sweet treats into the goodie bag. She handed the bag to Marinette, who passed it on to Alya and told them to go wait in the car. Alya, Nino, and Adrien said thank you and goodbye to Marinette's parents, before showing themselves out.

"Adrien does seem to be a big sweetheart, I wasn't lying when I said that" Sabine said once they left. .

"I know, but I'm worried, I've never worked together with someone on a mission before" Marinette confessed.

"Has he?" Sabine asked.

"No, I don't think so"

"So this will be a new experience for both of you, enjoy it sweetheart, learn from it, and maybe in the end you'll like it" Sabine smiled and cupped her daughter's cheek.

"You'll do fine" She said.

"Thanks maman" Marinette said, pulling her mother in for a hug.

"Oh are we hugging, how come no one told me?" Tom said, before snuggling in and giving his two girls a big bear hug. They put Marinette down and looked at her,

"We love you so much" Sabine said.

"I love you guys too"

"Please be careful on this mission, I know you say you've got it in the bag or whatever, but these missions can be very dangerous" Tom said seriously.

"I will" They opened the door for Marinette. She waved goodbye as she walked to the car.

"Come back soon" Sabine yelled.

"And call sometimes too" Tom added.

"Or text even"

"And eat all your food" Tom lastly added. By this point, Marinette was already in the car. She opened all the windows and everyone in the car waved goodbye as it drove out of the driveway and onto the street.

"That was so much fun" Adrien said when they were on the main road.

"Ya, great idea to go to the museum Alya" Nino said.

"Hmm, you're welcome" she replied.

"Who knew it would be so much fun laughing at our old pal here, when he was young" Nino said.

"Haha so funny" Adrien said sarcastically.

"Marinette you seem awfully silent, what's going on" Alya said.

"Oh nothing, I'm just thinking over some stuff my mom said" she replied.

"Master Fu said it was going to be a month long mission, I'm gonna miss them" Marinette said.

"Don't worry we promise to visit them for you" Alya said. Marinette smiled at her friends, but gratitude shone in her eyes.

"Relax, we are the top spies in our respective groups, we'll be in and out of there before you know it" Adrien said, hoping he could help.

"Thanks guys" Marinette said.

"Now let's head home"

They drove all the way home, where the boys went off to their rooms and the girls went to their shared room. Marinette decided to pack up all her stuff so that she and Adrien could leave straight away after breakfast. She packed clothes, entertainment, toiletries, and lady things, and by 11 o'clock, she had her heavy duty bag all packed up with only the necessities. She then got ready for bed and by 11:30 was snuggled up in her duvet. She grabbed her phone off the nightstand and set her alarm for 6 AM, better early, then sorry. Just before she closed her phone she noticed that Adrien was also online.

**LuckyLadybug:** What are you doing up so late, we have a mission tomorrow.

**BlackChat:** Seems I'm not the only one, hello to you too M'Lady

**LuckyLadybug:** Way to dodge the question, are you all packed up for tomorrow?

**BlackChat: **Yes, I did pack, and am all ready for tomorrow.

**LuckyLadybug:** That's good.

**BlackChat: **By the way, I had a lot of fun today, thanks for inviting me to your parents house, they seem so nice and your home seems like… well, a home.

**LuckyLadybug: **Of course Kitty, I had fun today, getting to know you and all, I feel like we'll do great on this mission since we already know each other quite well, anyway we should get to bed, you need your rest, driving to Marseille is no easy journey.

**BlackChat: **Who says I'm driving?

**LuckyLadybug: **I did, now go to sleep

**BlackChat: **Alright, alright, I'm going, Good night M'Lady

**LuckyLadybug: **Good night Kitty Cat

With that Marinette shut off her phone and put it back on her bedside table. She snuggled into her covers and closed her eyes. While it may look like she was sleeping, Marinette didn't catch a wink, just like on her first mission, the nerves had settled in. She just tossed and turned and hoped that everything would be alright.

**Hey y'all, I'm so sorry for going MIA for weeks,**

**Hopefully this longer chapter makes up for it though. **

**I will get better at this so I hope you stick around with me on this journey **

**Please if you have time, review and tell me what you think and how I can improve my writing.**

**Have a Great day and YAY tomorrow's Friday!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Marinette woke up at 6:00 AM the next morning, it even surprised her. Granted, Adrien did have to call her and make sure she didn't go back to sleep, but she refused to admit that he helped her wake up. She woke up Alya to join her for breakfast, then after getting ready, they both headed down to the campus cafe. There they were met with Adrien and Nino, both waiting at a table for them.

"Well fancy seeing you here" Marinette said.

"Ah, it was Adrien's idea, this guy here has never eaten in the cafe, like ever" Nino replied.

"Really?" Alya asked, directing the question to Adrien.

"Well I did once when I was very young, but I had no one to sit with so I left and didn't come back" Adrien shrugged.

"So where do you go for the three breaks?" Marinette asked.

"Well I usually go to Master Fu to train some more" Adrien said taking a sip of his smoothie.

"Well no wonder you are at the top of the Mens Spy group, you get extra help" Nino exclaimed.

"Anyway move over" Alya scooted into the booth beside Nino and Marinette did the same beside Adrien.

"Aren't you guys going to get anything to eat" Adrien asked.

"Oh ya I totally forgot, come on Alya lets go get something to eat" Marinette and Alya went off to get their food while Nino and Adrien stayed back.

"So are you excited for the mission?" Nino asked Adrien.

"Ya, I am, it's going to be interesting to see how it turns out"

"Well with Marinette on your side, you guys will be in and out of there in no time"

"You seem really close to her" Adrien observed.

"Haha ya, she is like a little sister to me, but when I was young, before Alya came, I used to have a massive crush on her" Nino laughed, remembering his tongue twisted days.

"What changed?" Adrien asked.

"I met Alya, don't get me wrong, Marinette is an awesome person, but my love changed into a sisterly love after I met and got to know Alya" Nino explained.

"What about you dude, a person spitting out as much puns as you has to be known by everyone right?" Nino asked.

"Well, even though my dad willingly allowed me to come here, he still wanted to have an iron fist ruling me, so he swamped my day with work, and I just never had the time to make any friends" Adrien explained.

"Dude thats rough, but what about before coming here? Didn't you have any friends from school?" Nino asked.

"Nope, my dad had me homeschooled, where he could "Keep an eye on me"" Adrien shook his head, realising the absurdity of his father's methods.

"What did he think you would do at school? Make the wrong friends and end up like some kid that always wears black and disobeys everyone?"

"I don't even know, Nathalie, my father's assistant would always say that my father was doing it because he loved me, but somehow I never believed it"

"Did you feel any better coming here?" Nino asked.

"Sort of, but I was still too busy, and on top of that my father would never give me the time of day, act as though I wasn't his child and rather some thorn in his side" Adrien said as though it were nothing. Nino, however, was having trouble believing that this person had such a hard time in his life.

"How the heck did you deal with all that?" Nino asked.

"Now that is something I'm not so proud of, I decided to go off on an act of rebellion and went off on a disastrous path of drinking day in and day out, I don't know why I did it, but one day when I looked at my grades and saw how close I was to being kicked out of the school, I went to Master Fu for help and he agreed to help, if I cut off all the bad habits I had made in the last few months. I agreed because I thought that without this school I had nothing" Adrien finished his rant with images flashing back in his mind.

"Dude… I don't even know what to say. You are in desperate need of a friend so consider me, Alya, and Marinette your new friends" Nino proclaimed, sticking his hand out for Adrien to shake. Adrien smiled and took his hand.

"Thanks Nino"

"God that line was sooo long" Alya said as she walked back to their table.

"Why are so many people awake at this ungodly hour" Marinette complained.

"I used to get up at 5 AM for photoshoots and stuff, so this is like sleeping in for me" Adrien said. Marinette placed a hand on Adrien's shoulder and said,

"Thank goodness you got yourself out of that". Adrien smiled at her before she turned back to eat her eggs.

"So guys, I have an announcement to make" Nino said.

"Our friend, Adrien, is a loner and needs help so I have done my duty and invited him to be apart of the miraculous Squad" Nino finished. Adrien looked to Marinette and noticed the same confusion, drawn on her face too, so he wasn't the only one thinking how strange it was. Nino pulled out a notebook and opened to a page that said "Rules of Miraculous Squad", underneath that said "first rule of MS, you do not talk about MS. Second rule of MS is that you do not talk about MS." Then a little "sign here", in which Adrien did sign.

"Congrats bro, welcome to The MS" Nino said while the girls just rolled their eyes.

"We thought this was funny and made it when we were 12" Marinette whispered into Adrien's ear. Adrien stifled a chuckle, the four friends went on eating their breakfast and chatting and laughing. Soon enough, it was 8 AM and Master Fu asked to see the two agents before they left. So Marinette suggested that she and Adrien go see Master Fu and Nino and Alya go wait in the dorms. The four friends split up and Marinette and Adrien made their way to Master Fu's office.

"Master Fu, you asked to see us?" Adrien asked peeking his head through the door.

"Come in, children" They walked in and sat in front of his desk.

"I wanted to wish you good luck on this mission, but remember, luck can only take you so far. I made you both partners for a reason, rely on one another and do not attempt to carry the burden of two on one set of shoulders" Master Fu explained.

"Stay alert and keep your cover and should any emergency situation arise, your lives are more important than catching the bad guy, come back to MSA and we will deal with the situation from there" Master Fu slid two boes across the table.

"These are state of the art communicators, Adrien inside your box is a ring with a compartment that holds a communication device, keep it with you at all times. Marinette, yours are earrings with a similar compartment, should you two be separated, these will help keep you in touch" Marinette and Adrien opened the boxes and saw a silver ring and black earrings, they put the jewelry on and nodded for Master Fu to continue.

"That is all I wanted to give you, hopefully all will be well and you both will come back safe" He stood up and Marinette stepped forward to give Master Fu a hug, he was surprised but returned it. Adrien also joined in and thanked Master Fu, they broke apart and headed for the door. Master Fu stepped out into the hallway and watched the two walk out and out of sight. Once they were out of sight, he said a silent prayer for them to come home safely before returning to his desk.

"Let's go get our stuff and we will meet back at the car park" Marinette said once they reached the hallway of dorms. Adrien nodded and split to go to his own dorm. Marinette opened the door and saw Alya on the sofa, she did a small wave and went into the bedroom to get her bag. When she got out, Alya tackled her into a hug.

"Please, please, please be careful, Marinette, these people at the Akuma, they are unforgiving and they take women as their workers, but God knows what else they do to them. I've looked into it and seen how bad they are, they don't believe in second chances, they torture and kill and it's horrifying, so promise me that you will come back and in one piece" Alya cried into her shoulder. Marinette was shocked, Alya was a tough cookie, who didn't cry in front of other people. Marinette grabbed Alya tight and held her until she stopped sniffling.

"Alya I will do my level best to complete the mission and come back, have some faith in me, and with the help of Adrien, I will be fine" Marinette reassured. Once Alya pulled herself together, the two girls headed downstairs to the car park. Adrien and Nino were waiting in front of a white Range Rover, their ride for the mission. Adrien took Marinette's bag and put it in with his, in the boot of the car.

"Are we ready to go?" he asked, after closing the boot.

"Ya I guess so" Marinette said, before pulling Alya into another hug.

"I will be fine" She said a second time. Nino fist bumped Adrien.

"You be careful bro, it's dangerous out there" He told Adrien. The four then did a big group hug, before Adrien opened the door for Marinette and she hoped in. Adrien got into the driver's seat and started the engine. They waved goodbye as they drove out of the student parking lot. Marinette looked up to the building and saw Master Fu through a window, she told Adrien and both waved goodbye to him as well. Soon enough they were on their way to their new home for the next few months.

"So 8 hours trapped in a car with you, oh what a day this will be" Marinette exclaimed.

"Haha like it'll be any better for me, Alya told me you ramble a lot" Adrien said.

"Pshhhh, I don't ramble, I mean sure I go into detail about some of the things I talk about but I don't rambl- never mind" Adrien laughed at her blatant example of rambling.

"Uhhhhh, how long have we been driving for, my legs are cramping" Marinette tried to stretch out her legs as much as possible.

"First of all, I'm driving not you. And second, we've been driving for like 30 minutes" Adrien rolled his eyes.

"Why couldn't Master Fu let us take the train or something"

"Because he didn't want that to be our only means of transport in case we need to make… a hasty exit"

"That was what you would call a rhetorical question" Marinette deadpanned.

"Are we even out of gas yet?" Marinette asked, reaching over to see the gas thingy.

"Marinette stop! I can't drive with you like over my lap!" Adrien was trying to keep an eye out on the road with Marinette's head in the way of his sight.

"Oh my bad" Marinette said unapologetically.

"If we don't make it to Marseille, I'm blaming you" he said.

They continued to banter back and forth on the busy highway. After about an hour and a half of driving, the two decided to stop and get some coffee and stretch their legs. They were there for about half an hour before they got back on the road, this time with Marinette driving.

"Slow down" Adrien reminded.

"You just feel like it's fast because you are in the passenger's seat" Marinette retorted.

"Can I sleep for a little bit?" Adrien asked.

"Why are you asking? Of course you can" Marinette replied. So Adrien reclined his seat and closed his eyes. After 2 hours of sitting in silence, Marinette turned on the radio to keep herself occupied. What she didn't expect was the blasting of hard rock that came through the radio as soon as she turned it on.

"AHHHH! I'm Awake!" Adrien jerked up from his seat in fright. Marinette turned down the radio and smiled sheepishly.

"Oops, my bad" she said

"Oh my god, I thought we died" He said placing a hand over his heart. He took a look at his watch and saw that it was 5:00.

"We've been driving for 3 hours?"

"Ya you drove for like an hour and then I drove for two, and plus the break, we still have like 5 more hours to go" Marinette calculated.

"Wanna stop to get something to eat?"

"We could stop at a drive-thru" Marinette suggested.

"Hm, it would be faster" Adrien started looking through his phone for a fast food restaurant. Once he found a nearby McDonalds they drove to it and ordered their food. To save time, Marinette ate her burger then got back on the road, while Adrien finished his meal.

"Can you give me some fries?" she asked. Adrien grabbed a few fries and hand fed her to avoid her from taking her eyes off the road.

"You could have just taken the box out of the bag and placed in the cup holder"

"Can't have you getting distracted now can we?" was Adrien's response. They continued on their long drive and after another hour Marinette and Adrien switched spots so that Marinette could catch a little shut eye. She woke up an hour later and it was about 7:30 in the evening.

"So only 3 hours left until we can sleep in a bed" Marinette observed.

"Thank goodness for beds, my back is so stiff" Adrien complained.

"So do you like it at MSA?" Marinette asked.

"Ya it's great, everyone is pretty nice" he said.

"Do you know what you want to do after you decide you've had enough of the missions?"

"I don't know but I really want to get a stable job and settle down" Adrien replied.

"You want to settle down?" Marinette asked.

"Is it that surprising?"

"No, no, I just thought that you'd be the one to travel the world and remain a bachelor for a while"

"My father says that once I receive a degree in business, he will hand over the company to me, which will allow me to make my own hours, with the exception of meetings, and while it may not be as fun as what I'm doing now, it will give a chance to be present in my own family's life"

"But your father" 

"He admits that he could have easily made time for me, but with grieving over a loved one, he lost touch with me and thought he could never repair the bond, so he never bothered to try"

"Oh wow, I don't know what to say" Marinette said.

"It's okay, we are on slightly better terms and I can see that he is trying, so I will too" Adrien smiled. Marinette was happy things were better, but was horrified at the thought of things getting so bad.

"Well if you ever need to vent, I'm here to listen" was all she said. They continued driving in silence before it was too much to bare, so Marinette turned on the radio and they had a singing competition to see who was better.

Marinette dozed off to sleep for about half an hour, when Adrien decided it would be funny to get her back. So he turned on the radio and turned to the channel that played hard rock 24/7. He suddenly turned the volume up to max, just as the guitar solo was playing. Marinette woke up screaming and flailing her arms everywhere. Adrien could barely focus on the road, he was laughing so hard. Once Marinette came to her senses, she promptly punched him on the arm.

"OW, geez woman, you've got a strong right too" He said rubbing his arm.

"Hm, I didn't become best spy by not working" She replied.

"Best spy? I do believe that title is mine"

"Nuh-uh, good spies don't scare their partner shitless"

"Oh like you did to me this afternoon?" Adrien asked.

"I told you it was an accident!" Marinette screeched.

"Mhmm, anyway, we are gonna reach in like 15 minutes, and I was wondering if you wanted to get something to eat to bring to our new place?"

"Did Master Fu say anything about there being food at the house?" Marinette asked.

"I think there might be something, he sent me a text saying it was fully furnished" Adrien replied.

"Should I call and ask him?" Marinette asked.

"Might as well do it here so no one can track it, and we have to call him and tell him we reached safely"

Marinette grabbed her phone and called Master Fu. After talking for a few minutes, she cut the phone and put it away.

"So Master Fu says that his team stocked the fridge and we should be good to head directly home and that he has a good signal on our coordinates and he wishes us good luck"

"Alright then, shall we go home, M'lady?" Adrien looked Marinette in the eyes with a humorful glint. She giggled, "Indeed we shall". With that the "couple" drove into their new neighbourhood and pulled into the driveway of their new house.

"Wow, Master Fu wasn't kidding when he said we were wealthy" Marinette said once she saw the house. In the dark, the home had an eerie feel, but hopefully in the light it would seem better. The exterior walls were almost castle like, the brick was an old greyish color.

"Hopefully it looks less dull and scary in the sunlight" Adrien said, practically reading Marinette's mind.

"Well if it doesn't, we are just going to have to liven it up won't we, dear" She said stretching out the "dear" in the end and looking increasingly innocent.

"That we will, so shall we go home, Mrs. Agreste" Adrien replied, smiling as he saw her cheeks heat up, oh he was going to have too much fun with this. He stepped out of the car and walked over to Marinette's side. He opened the door like a gentleman and helped her out of the car. Marinette looked to her right and saw a home, much like theirs. At first glance it didn't look any different, but then she started to notice things, how the entrance was particularly wide and the garage was very close to the entrance. The windows were tinted and even had a silver outline, which was no doubt used to keep them closed at all times. She looked away to avoid looking suspicious.

"Should we get our bags and head inside" she asked Adrien.

He seemed to be lost in his own thoughts and was brought out by the sound of her voice. He nodded his head and opened the boot of the car. They grabbed their bags and hauled them into the house. Once they stepped inside, Adrien turned on the lights he found closest to the door. Once the light turned on, it was like they were in a different house.

The inside was a big contrast to the outside, it was modern and sheek, with a white, grey, and black color palette.

"Wow are you sure this is our house?" Marinette said as she removed her shoes and placed them in the shoe closet that was located behind a mirror, beside the door. She walked further inside and saw the open living room, it had dark hardwood flooring and a white coffee table with a clear top. The couch was a u-shaped, white with light blue, beige, and blush throw pillows, surrounding a beautiful marble fireplace that mounted a large flat screen TV.

"Oh heaven forbid we ever end up spilling something on that sofa" Adrien said as he followed Marinette. In the living room was also a large library filled with books and a black grand piano.

Marinette walked to her right and saw a beautiful pristine white kitchen with marble countertops, gold handles for the cupboards and black ovens and microwaves.

"I can't wait to eat all the stuff you're going to cook" Adrien said.

"We aren't going to be a nuclear couple, where I am doing all the cooking and cleaning and you're going to act all tired and complain about all the work you do, are we?" Marinette asked half joking.

"Hey, I'll help where I can, but my skills in the kitchen go down to making toast so I don't know how much help I will be?"

"Don't worry, I will teach you" Marinette patted his shoulder.

"Oh yippee" He said unenthusiastically.

"Jeez, try and contain your excitement" Marinette said, sending Adrien doubling over in laughter. She smiled when he was taking deep breaths to calm himself, he had such a cute laugh. Her mind froze, she cleared her throat and continued on. She spotted the stairs and smiled.

"Last one upstairs gets the smallest bedroom!" she yelled before dashing up the stairs. She heard Adrien bound up the stairs behind her. She laughed as she made her way to the top of the stairs. Upstairs, the flooring changed to a white carpet.

"I'm really starting to question how much of a family house this is" Adrien said once he reached the top. Marinette couldn't bring herself to disagree when she saw that the stairs just led down a hallway with doors. They walked down and opened up all the doors.

"I was half expecting a person to jump out and scare the life out of us" Adrien said.

"I was expecting to find a few dead bodies in them" Marinette replied. Most of the doors were to offices and design studios, and while Marinette was thrilled with them, she wasn't sure how child friendly they were. There were a few bare rooms, which Adrien suspected to be play rooms, but a couple with no children had no use for them, so they were left bare. There was a total of four bedrooms, one master suite, and three smaller, but still massive, bedrooms. Neither Marinette nor Adrien were all that interested in the master suite, but rather the smaller bedrooms. Each had their own bath and walk-in closet. Marinette was particularly interested in the room that looked like her old bedroom, but with less pink. Adrien's bedroom also reminded him of his old room, it had a huge library and blues and oranges spilled throughout the room.

"I call this one!" Marinette cries out into the hall.

Adrien walked out to Marinette's room and asked her if she wanted to eat anything. When she gave her response in the affirmative, they both headed downstairs back to the kitchen. The fridge was fully stocked with fruits, veggies, drinks, condiments, and microwave meals. Since neither of them were too hungry, Marinette settled for a frozen lasagna and Adrien took out a frozen chicken and rice meal. They both took it to the couch and turned on the TV.

"Do you think we will be killed, if we drop something on the sofa?" asked Adrien.

"As long as it's not on purpose, I think we'll be alright" responded Marinette.

"So do we have any plans to catch them?" Adrien asked as he shovelled food into his mouth.

"We could always just observe them, we do live next door?"

"That's true, but we need to be careful, and one of these days, we need to take a closer look into their cave" Marinette nodded in agreement.

"If Master Fu said he got the information from a former employee, then we can bet that to save cost and keep privacy-"

"They've held some stuff in their home" Adrien finished.

"We can't do anything yet though, we need to seem friendly and kind so they can rely on us, with any luck, they'll start talking before we start tickling" Adrien looked at Marinette with a questioning look after he heard the expression.

"That was a weird one I know"

"Anyway, so do you think they will be willing to open up?"

"We won't know unless we try"

"Good point, so we invite them for dinner?" Adrien asked.

"Um I guess we could try that, but we should try and get to know everyone in the neighbourhood, so they don't get suspicious that we give them special attention" Marinette said.

"Ya that's for sure" Adrien yawned.

"Man I hate driving for long periods of time" he said.

"Don't we all" Marinette replied, doing a small stretch herself.

Adrien got up and took Marinette's container from her, and went to go throw it in the garbage. When he got back, Marinette was sitting on the couch with Ice age playing on the TV. Adrien walked over to a little closet, found a blanket and brought it to the couch.

"Can I join?" he asked. Marinette took the blanket from his hands, "Didn't you say you were tired" she said.

"I am, and I am too tired to walk to my room"

"Fine, but if you fall asleep, don't expect me to lift you up" she made space for him under the blanket and they both cuddled up to watch ice age. After about 15 minutes both of them were sprawled out, fast asleep on the sofa.

In the neighboring house, Karen was looking through the tinted glass of the house. She refused to call it her home because is had stopped being that, so long ago. She saw the new neighbours that moved in, they seemed kind, very cute couple indeed.

"Whatcha doing Karen" Jeffory asked.

"Just seeing the new neighbours" she replied.

"Oh the ones that took forever to move in?" he walked over to see them. The girl stepped out of the car, while the dude got the stuff from the trunk of the car. She looked around a lot, as though it was her first time here, which was odd, considering that they bought the house. Jeffory narrowed his eyes when he saw the lady look at their home and look at it for too long to be deemed a glance.

"I don't like them" he said.

"You haven't even met them, Jeff, give them a chance" Karen smiled, the way the two interacted reminded her of herself and Jeffory, before the madness. Jeffory stepped away from the window and towards the living room.

"Karen, will you serve dinner" he said once he was in the living room. Karen sighed as soon as she heard the television turn on, "Do it yourself" she muttered under her breath, too low for Jeff to hear over the loud football game. After one more look out the window, seeing the couple go inside, she steeled herself for the night and walked to the kitchen. This was her life and she had no one but herself to blame.

**Heyyo!**

**I'm back and school starts up after a five day weekend so yippee!**

**I will try to keep updating as much as possible and start trying to plan ahead, but I don't know how well it will go, so we will see. **

**Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you all have a great week. **

**BYE!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Nino pulled a pillow over his head to block out the noise of someone banging on his door. Why couldn't Adrien get it, he was always up earlier than him. Once Nino's mind registered the fact that Adrien had left for a mission and no one else was in the dorm, he groaned and slowly rose from his bed. He pulled the blanket around himself and looked at the clock sitting on his nightstand. 3:30 AM, just perfect, whoever was at his door better have a good excuse for waking him up so early. He walked to the door and pulled it open with a scowl on his face. Once he saw Alya's sheepish face on the other side, the scowl disappeared.

"Heyyyy, Nino"

"Alya, what's up, are you okay" He asked before pulling her inside his dorm and closing the door.

"Ya I'm fine, I just didn't feel like being alone" she answered.

"Alya I told you, Marinette is a great spy and with Adrien by her side, nothing can touch her, I promise" Nino reassured.

"I know, but... " she trailed off.

"You're still worried, I get it. Come on, let's get some sleep" Nino wrapped himself and Alya under his blanket and tenderly placed his lips on the crown of her head. Alya closed her eyes and smiled, already feeling better and less anxious.

"Thank you Nino"

"Anytime Alya, anytime". They both climbed into bed and fell asleep within the safety of each other's arms.

Across France, there were two more young adults tied up in each other's arms at 3:00am in the morning. Marinette and Adrien had stayed up late, brainstorming ideas to get close to Jeffory and Karen Kline, so far they were just going to try and get close to them. Something in Marinette told her that it wasn't Karen's idea so getting close to her would be the best option. So once they discussed all of that, they put on a movie and slowly fell asleep. Adrien opened his eyes and saw the bright light of the clock on the coffee table saying 3:02am. He unravelled his arms from Marinette, not even surprised that they were around her and stood up. He looked at Marinette, who was leaning over and looking very uncomfortable. Adrien sighed and leaned down to pick up Marinette. Surprisingly the girl was as light as a feather and he was able to easily lift her to her room. He gingerly placed her on her bed and put the blanket over her, before doing a stretch and heading over to his own room.

Marinette woke up in the comfort of her own temporary room, the sun was shining through the curtains. She stretched and stared at the ceiling wondering how she got there. Once deciding that Adrien must have carried her, she got up and walked out into the hallway. Once she reached Adrien's room, Marinette opened the door and saw a slumbering Adrien with half his body off the bed. She laughed at the sight before looking at her wrist watch. It was already 11:50, so Marinette walked into the room and started calling Adrien's name to wake him up. When he made no move of waking, Marinette walked to his feet and started tickling his toes. He started to move around and pull his feet closer to his body, but ultimately did nothing to wake up. Finally Marinette grabbed his hand and yanked him out of bed. He landed unceremoniously on the ground with a yelp.

"What was that for!?" he said rubbing tailbone from the impact.

"I tried to wake you up but you wouldn't budge, so you left me no choice" Marinette said. She held out her hand to pull him up. He accepted it and pulled himself to his feet.

"Sooooo, pancakes?" she asked and laughed at the grin that split his face into two.

After Marinette and Adrien made pancakes, they sat at the breakfast nook and began to eat.

"Mmmmm, these are sooooo good" Adrien said savoring the fluffy and sweet flavours in his mouth.

"Why thank you and thanks for helping"

"I did say I would help you where I could" Adrien said pulling two more from the stack.

"So what should we do about our mission?" Adrien asked.

"Well after our little photoshoot session, I went home and started thinking. We need to get on their good side without seeming suspiciously interested in them, right?" without waiting for his reply she continued. "So in my culture we bring gift baskets to other people as a welcoming thing"

"But shouldn't they be welcoming you?" Adrien interrupted.

'Oh hush, anyway, this could be our perfect excuse to get inside their home!" She said excitedly.

Adrien smiled and nodded, "Wanna go now?"

"Why not, its Saturday, they should be home" Marinette said.

"Okay, let me go get dressed and we can head out"

"Alright cool" Marinette dressed in her simple jeans and t-shirt and put her long beautiful hair into a side braid. She was waiting in the front foyer of the house for Adrien to come down.

"ADRIEN! Hurry up, we are going to a shop, not your father's fashion event" She yelled after 15 minutes of waiting. He then made his grand entrance down the giant stairs, in a white t-shirt, blue jeans and a black leather jacket.

"Your Beau has arrived" he said popping his collar. Marinette rolled her eyes so far back, she almost saw her brain.

"Alright, fine Mr. Model" she tossed him the keys and walked out the door.

"Care to explain to me why it took you like 30 minutes to wear jeans?" she asked once Adrien entered the car.

"My hair takes effort and care" He said as he started the car. Marinette scoffed at that and just looked out her window. Their neighbourhood was quite small, but with giant homes, like their own. After about 20 minutes of driving, Adrien pulled into a plaza with a nice small shop. They walked into the dusty old place where an old lady was sitting in the front.

"Oh my, welcome, please come in, come in" She said, reaching for her cane and standing up.

"We haven't had customers here for a long while, thank you for coming"

Adrien and Marinette shared a smile,

"Of course, it seems like a very nice shop" Adrien said.

"We were looking for gift baskets, you don't happen to have any, do you?" Marinette asked.

"Oh of course we do, I handwove these baskets and made them myself" The old lady said, proudly.

"Wow, they are exquisite, very intricately done" Marinette said, unleashing her inner artist.

"Thank you miss, please take them"

"Yes we will take two" The old lady took two of the baskets and walked over to the check out center.

"So do you live here alone?" Adrien asked.

"Unfortunately yes, I live just above the shop, would you like to come up for a cup of tea?" She asked. Marinette looked at Adrien and he smiled and nodded slightly.

"Sure, we would love to come up for tea" She smiled. With that, the old lady lead them upstairs to her nice cozy home. It was a nice place, with a small fireplace and many old looking items.

"Is this all your inventory?" Adrien asked picking up an antique bowl and examining it.

"Oh no, no, these are things that were given to me by someone who is- was very close to me" She answered.

"Was it a good friend, who passed?" Marinette asked shyly.

"Oh heavens no, it was a lover of mine, we were the best of pairs, but one day he left and never returned. I don't know where on Earth he is, but I just hope he is okay and doing well" She had a small hopeful smile on her face.

"And that one day he will return home"

"I'm sure he will ma'am" Adrien chimed in.

"Oh yes, the tea, I completely forgot. This old noggin ain't what it used to be that's for sure, let me put the kettle on and I will be back" She scampered off to wherever the kitchen was to prepare the forgotten tea.

"She seems very sweet" Marinette said.

"I feel terrible for her living all alone in this place" Adrien said admiring the photos above the fireplace.

"Oh my gosh, Marinette come here" Adrien waved her over.

"What? What is it?" He simply pointed to an old picture frame with a young lady standing next to a man.

"Is that… Master Fu?" Marinette's mouthed gapped like a fish. Then stretched into a large smile.

"That means the lover in her story was Master Fu! Oh imagine how happy she will be when we tell her, then the long lost lovers can reunite, and we can go to their wedding" Adrien grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Woah there, slow down. I don't think it would be very wise to tell her about Fu"

"Why not?" Marinette pouted.

"Think about it, Master Fu left her most likely to help at MSA, if we tell her, his cover could be ruined and we would have to pay for it"

"But I'm sure if we told Master Fu, he could bring her over to MSA headquarters and find a proper job for her"

"Let's think about it first, before we make any rash decisions"

"She seemed so hopeful Adrien, that he would come back to her, I wouldn't be able to live with myself, knowing that I let her hope die"

"I know Marinette, I know we will help her, I promise".

"Alright tea is done" the old lady walked back inside the room and smiled at the young couple. They took a seat on the sofa and took the tea.

"So I may not get out much but I do know people, I haven't seen you two before in this area" the lady said.

"Oh we aren't from here, we grew up in Paris but we decided to move to a more calm area so Marseille seemed perfect" Marinette said.

"I'm sorry but I never got your names" The old lady said.

"My name is Marinette and this is Adrien. And your's?"

"Oh my name is Mariam" Suddenly Adrien's phone began to ring. He stepped out to take the call and when he returned, he said that they were needed at another place.

"It was very nice to meet you and please do come back to visit" Mariam said as she scanned the gift baskets and showed them out of the shop. Marinette promised they would and waved goodbye as they went into the car.

"So who called?" Marinette asked as they exited the parking lot.

"Apparently Master Fu has dropped off a package that can't be left on our doorstep and he needs us to go pick it up" Adrien replied pulling into their garage.

Marinette went to the door and saw the mailman waiting there for someone to answer the door. She quickly opened the door, apologised for the long wait, and took the package. She walked into the living room and asked Adrien to get her somse scissors. They ripped open the package and found a note along with two small devices. The note written by Master Fu said that they were to immediately attach the tracking devices to both their own and the Klines' vehicle.

"Hmm, this is going to be difficult" Adrien said.

"Why we just attach the trackers and we are done, easy peasy" she said.

"Yes but their windows are all tinted glass meaning we won't be able to see if they are watching us but they will know what we are doing" Adrien replied.

"Well then how are we supposed to- wait a minute, I know! We can pretend to be on an evening stroll"

"That could work, we could head off in that direction and act like we dropped something and head back pick it up and attach the device" Adrien thought it over before smiling.

"Care to join me on an evening stroll, M'Lady?" Adrien said gingerly picking up her hand.

"Of course Kitty, let me go get my coat and we can leave" Marinette disappeared and was back within a moment with her coat.

"Shall we" She said holding out her elbow. Adrien smiled and took hold of it. They stepped out and locked up before heading down the street to the Klines' Residency. Marinette and Adrien continued walking until they reached the driveway. Marinette discreetly dropped a kerchief and said "Oops, I am such a clutz". She bent down and quickly placed the tracker under the car before picking up the kerchief.

"Hey! What are you doing!?" A voice from the opposite side of the street said. Adrien stood in front of Marinette protectively before speaking.

"Nothing, we were just taking a stroll and my wife dropped her napkin. Is there a problem?" he asked.

"Heck yes there is, what on earth are you doing in front of the Klines' house?" the man whisper-yelled before pulling them across the street to his own house.

"Come in, Come in" He said pulling them into the home.

"Welcome Agent Ladybug and Agent Chat Noir, to our humble home" Both Marinette and Adrien's eyes blew wide in confusion and worry in just being outed.

"How do you know who we are?" Marinette said opening her jacket and pulling out a rope.

"Are you planning on hurting me with that?"

"Yes, if it comes to that, now answer my question, How do you know who we are?" She said, venom dripping from her voice, so much so that even Adrien was scared. The man, however, scoffed and pulled out a cheese string.

"I'd like to see you try little girl" Marinette looked indignant by the term "Little Girl". She began to charge but Adrien quickly grabbed her hip and the hand holding the rope.

"Easy, Easy! We aren't here to hurt civilians"

"Well he is obviously no civilian, he knows who we are"

"May I introduce myself, the name's Plagg" he said pointedly.

"Wait a minute, The Plagg!, I have heard so much about you!" Adrien said dropping Marinette to the ground.

"Ow!"

"Oh sorry" he quickly gave her a hand before going over to Plagg.

"Is it true that you took down a hundred bad guys with swords?" He asked with child-like wonder.

"Ehhh, I don't wanna get into detail" he said rubbing the back of his neck.

"Especially when those details would prove that he had help" another voice said from upstairs.

"Madame Tikki! Wow you are like my idol" Marinette gushed.

"I thought my dad was your Idol" Adrien said cheekily which promptly earned him an elbow to the stomach.

"Hello children" Tikki said.

"What are the two greatest spies in the MSA doing here?" Marinette asked

"Well we've retired, decided to go off on our own and do our own thing" Tikki said, waving them into the living room.

"Now, more important matters, what were you two doing at that house" Tikki said with all sweetness gone from her voice.

"Well we've been instructed to infiltrate the house and find enough evidence to put them behind bars." Adrien explained.

"Ah, I didn't think Master Fu had bothered with them anymore" Plagg said to Tikki.

"Hm, neither did I but it seems they've caused more trouble than we know" She replied.

"Wait, what do you mean "bothering with them anymore", you mean Master Fu's tried this before?" Marinette asked.

"Yes, well a long time ago, when we were about your age maybe younger, Fu made us go on your exact mission. Either we weren't experienced enough or Jeffory was just less slow, but they caught us and decided to grant us mercy. He sent us back with a bullet in Tikki's arm and a note for Master Fu telling him to leave Akuma be or else he would come for him" Plagg said.

"It was hard for Master Fu but eventually he gave up and let it go, well until we left I guess" Tikki finished.

"Anyway, Tikki, would you be a dear and bring out dinner. Can't leave our guests hungry can we?" Plagg said kicking his feet up on the coffee table. Tikki rolled her eyes and took Plagg by the ear.

"We can't have them waiting, can we dear?" She said pulling him by the ear into the kitchen. Marinette and Adrien were left laughing at their relationship.

"Tikki has always been a big inspiration for me, that is why I call myself Ladybug, after her 'Red Beetle'" Marinette sighed.

"Plagg, even though he doesn't know it, was always like a father figure to me after I reached the Agency, someone I strived to be like even though he didn't know me" Adrien said, sharing his own thoughts.

"I guess we are pretty lucky, getting to know our idols in person" Marinette smiled.

"Ya I guess we are"

" You two coming?! I'm not messing up my couches with lasagna" Tikki hollered from the dining room. They all ate the lovely dinner and sang praises to Tikki for her expert cooking. Eventually it was late and Marinette and Adrien decided to take their leave.

"Thank you for having us" Marinette said taking her jacket and rope from the closet.

"Ya of course, just keep that thing away from me" Plagg said, referring to the rope she was tucking into her jacket pouch.

"It was our pleasure and if you need anything, don't hesitate to give us a call" Tikki said giving Marinette a sticky note with their number on it. She pocketed the note and opened the door for her and Adrien to leave. They walked out into the street and waved goodbye before going to their own house. With one sparing glance at the Klines' house, Marinette walked inside and shut the door. She was deep in thought when Adrien tapped on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"I'm worried, if the greatest spies on the force couldn't take out these guys, will we?" she said. At that point Adrien saw a different Ladybug than he had ever known. Not the usual Ladybug that was willing to throw herself in harm's way to save someone else. The usual Ladybug who could make a boxer fear for his life. This Ladybug was one that looked human.

"Hey, it will be fine, I will bet that Master Fu knew and trusted us enough to know that we will not rest until we get the job done" Adrien said pulling Marinette in for a hug. She sighed against him and felt all her worries disappear. She pulled away and smiled,

"You're right partner, we won't rest until we complete this mission. So get your sleep, tomorrow the real work begins."

**HEYYY Everybody *laughs nervously***

**I know its been a while, a long while, **

**I am so sorry for leaving this story but it definitely isn't the end.**

**I kept coming back to the story for the past 4 months but I was never satisfied with what I wrote**

**So I took a break and read so many good books that helped me feel inspired to continue**

**SO I'M BACK and GOOD AS NEW**

**I hope you all enjoy this new chapter and feel free to tear it apart and give any and all advice you may have to better my writing**

**Thank you and Have a great day**


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